Guest Column
New municipal building makes sense
Evan Zimmerman
Guest Column
New municipal building makes sense
I am writing to you in support of the newly proposed West Long Branch borough building on Broadway. The current building, on Poplar Avenue, has recently been infected with "black mold," or Stachybotrys chartarum/atra, which has been responsible for the deaths of babies from respiratory bleeding; it is also a leading contributor to asthma and bronchitis. Councilman Joseph Delisa says that the mold may be the result of a stream or creek running under the building, which goes hand-in-hand with the mold’s tendency to grow in areas that are damp or moist. While black mold is less common than other mold species, it is not rare. Time magazine quotes, "Black mold is spreading like some sort of biblical plague;" and the New York Daily News calls it "killer mold." Even if the mold was treated and corrected, there would be no guarantee that it would not grow back.
The Poplar Avenue building has been standing for over 80 years and was once the clubhouse for the Norwood CC. Decades of leakage from underneath have infected three rooms in the building’s basement. The police locker room, evidence room and firearms room were all found with mold. The rooms have since been sterilized and treated for a sizeable sum, and are to be permanently closed down.
The proposed new building on Broadway will house the police station, town courthouse, building and zoning departments, and offices for the fire department and OMS.
Right now, the fire and OMS squads have no offices in which to keep records or files.
Renovations of the old building will cost approximately $1,600,000 plus any unforeseen charges, such as the cost of temporary trailers, phone lines, fax lines and computers.
The new building will cost approximately $3,600,000. This cost can be lowered considerably depending on whether or not the town is able to secure a grant to subsidize the new project. The council is also looking into other forms of obtaining the money at a low-interest rate. They could also raise capital by hermetically sealing the basement of the old building and putting it up for sale or lease.
I believe the facts strongly support the construction of a new municipal building on Broadway of West Long Branch.
Evan Zimmerman is a ninth-grader at the Ranney School.